The City of Gulf Breeze is holding a dedication ceremony at 2:00 pm Sunday, November 10, for its newest public art piece. The Gulf Breeze Arch was created by internationally renowned architectural ceramists Peter King and Xinia Marin. It’s the third of five public art installations to be commissioned by the City to commemorate 50 years of incorporation.
The first sculpture is located at Wayside Park on the south end of the Pensacola Bay Bridge. The second public art piece is located at Woodland Park on Fairpoint Drive. The Arch is being erected at Shoreline Park, across from the Gulf Breeze Community Center. Buzz Eddy, Gulf Breeze City Manager, tells WUWF that location was chosen because maintenance of the park property was one of the reasons residents decided to incorporate in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
King is founder of Stonehaus Pottery Gallery in Pensacola. Marin was a professor of ceramics at the University of Costa Rica. Together, they have created public art for about two dozen cities throughout the Americas from Vancouver, Canada to Sao Paolo, Brazil.
One of their first pieces, the Radio Torii, was commissioned by WUWF in the early 1990s.
Their 9-11 “Homage to America” sits in downtown Pensacola.
The new Gulf Breeze Arch is about 15-feet tall and 10 feet wide…and took over two thousand pounds of clay to construct.
The front side depicts the rich history of Gulf Breeze Naval Live Oaks and the Navy’s early shipbuilding efforts. The back displays a nesting sea turtle and has references to the old Allan Davis Seashell shop, which was the city’s first tourist attraction.
To add to the experience for kids, there are also plans to develop a coloring book and a study guide for the Arch that teachers can utilize when taking students there on field trips.
